Weekly Mix 1/31
Every Friday, I share the highlights of what I’ve been listening to over the course of the week, from old favorites to new discoveries. Playlist best enjoyed in order.
For the most part, this week was heavy on rock again, with a few exceptions — like “Easy Company” by Hank Fontaine, leaning more towards alternative or indie. It’s a light, fun song with a little catchiness to it and a nice guitar solo in the middle, and Hank’s style will be familiar to those who followed his now-defunct but wonderful band The Fontaines.
From there, we have Angie McMahon’s take on the Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac classic “Silver Springs,” which deserves a deep dive over the weekend, maybe, but it’s a solid cover. With McMahon’s deep voice and the electric guitar, it’s quite different from the original in ways that may make difficult for diehards to accept, but she captures the raw emotion of the chorus beautifully, with all the power and ache of the original. I have to give credit to my cousin for turning me on to this after I tweeted about the genius that is the original.
The tempo comes up a smidge with “There’s a Place” by The All-American Rejects, who do pop rock really, really well — their early stuff still holds up, I insist — but this is a slower, more acoustic-leaning track from them, still capturing some of the best of their songwriting in its sweetness and a little bit of sadness.
The electric guitars really get going on “Bleed American” from the album of the same name by Jimmy Eat World. It’s an album that gave us the hit “The Middle” and other fan favorite “Sweetness,” and great as those tracks are, Bleed American is the perfect example of an album that deserves far more attention than its two most famous songs —for starters, its title track is a master class in opening tracks, starting strong with a great riff, a big chorus, and a little bit of intensity, setting the stage for the rest of the album.
We end on a somber note with Demi Lovato’s latest, “Anyone.” While I’m not much of a fan of hers — I find her songs to be stale, contrived pop — “Anyone” is a beautiful albeit melancholy look at just what she’s capable of. Her vocal stands out from the start, packed with power and emotion that never really lets up paired with lyrics with the same qualities. Musically, “Anyone” is simple with just the vocals and a piano, but anything more would be a distraction. It’s Lovato at her best.
For some weekend reading (or listening of the non-musical kind), check out NPR’s new series on one-hit-wonders, starting with Ted Leo on why Dexy’s Midnight Runners deserves some recognition for “Geno” and not just their amazingly catchy hit, “Come on Eileen” — and I have to agree. “Geno” is a jam.
